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T H E T W P R C 1 > A. M A T 1 N S. 




SPEECH 



HON. JAMES BROODS, 

BEFOBE 1 i j£\ U ^ 

Democratic Union Association, Sept. 29th, 1862. 



Hon. James Brooks, on rising, was received 
with great chef ring. As soon as silence was 
restored, ho said : — 

Mb. Chaikman and Gentlemen :— I am well 
aware of the responsibility under which any 
public speaker addresses any public meeting in 
a crisis like this. I am well aware, that this 
hitherto proud land of liberty, of which we all 
have boasted and in which we all have lived, i • 
now not altogether free, for free discussion, free 
speech, or a free press. (" That's so," and ap- 
plause. Another voice—" We'll make it so.") 
Everyone who comes before the public fear- 
lessly to utter his sentiments, to nay now what 
hitherto has neon accorded to all by every ad- 
ministration of the government, assumes a re- 
sponsibility which every public speaker would 
gladly avoid if lie could. I have interests, I 
have associations, I have responsibilities, I have 
a family, and I am notsatisfi< d yet, that if whal 
I say here does not suit the administration in 
power, that I may not be dragged and incar- 
cerated where many a ruau has been dragged 
without trial. (" No yon won't," and ap i 
Nevertheless, I feel that I speak as it t^re, a 
candidate for the Bastile this evening, but I 
«hall speak freely, boldly, and fearlessly, though 
with due respect to the administration. (Loud 
cheers.) 

THE DISTINCTION 1'. I ! « 1 11 N UDMTNISTBATIOJ VSV 
GOVERNMENT. 

A new era has come in upon us ; new logic 
has arisen ; new law is expounded ; new exposi- 
tors of the Constitution have sprung up. There 
was assembled, Sunday evening, in a neighbor- 
ing city, in no lager bier saloon, in no Irish porter 
house, where a like discussion would have been 
suppressed by the police, but in the holy Puri- 
tan church of Brooklyn, a political meeting, 
(great hissing) in which the reverend expositor 



of the Constitution laid down this creed, as I 
find it reported: 

"There can bo only two parties now in ibis 
-onefor liberty ana the President and 
i for the Smith' and for slavery. I know 
it is said that the President is not the govern^ 
merit ; that the Constitution is the government. 
Wha* . ! a sbeep.-km parobuumt a government ! 
* * President Lincoln, his cabinet, the heada 
of the executive departments, are me govern- 
ed i ,«■;> bave got to take their choice 
whether thej will go ag i-inst thi g »vei ament. 

And the President himBelf has fallen into a 
like error in his reply to the Abolitioni-tts of 
Chicago, for they report him to have said, while 
they were presenting to him the necessity of 
issuing the proelamati" 

"Understand, says Pre 'dent Lincoln, "I 
raise no objection <>n legal or constitutional 
• :•, i !ommander-io-Chief of the 
i in time of war, I sirppose I have 
totakeany measure which may best 
subdue th< enemy." Be farthi r said io the 
of his conversation with them, in sub- 
thai whatever appeared to do God's will 
he (President Lincoln) would do. 

Now, gentlemen, T propose, as briefly as pos- 
sible, to present to yon, not my ideas, out what 
are the real ideas ol government and of the ad- 
ministration of the government, and what is the 
difference hotween government and the admin- 
istration of government ? To the government 
Itself, we all owo loyalty and devotion, (ap- 
plause) and to the government we all owe alle- 
giance and fidelity. Government is not odIv 
instituted bv man for the protection of man and 
of society, but government is ordained of G"d 
to protect the people from anarchy and to main- 
tain liberty and law for the people. (Renewed 
applause.) 

ALLEGIANCE DUE TO GOVERNMENT, NOT TO MAN. 

To that species of government our allegiance 
is due, and it has been given by the Whigs and by 
fcju i ,. nil k i a1 m Congress in freely voting mil- 



.2 



lious and teuH of million* to support tbi 
n-nmont and the Constitution of the United 
Spates. It has been given by the people of New 
York city, in tens of thousands of dollars and 
in thousands of soldiers, volunteers in the 
army of tbetoiied States, for the support, of 
the Rovr rmneut ; and its volume and its voice 
pressed by two D • Generals at 

the head of the army, HaReck, the Commander 
in-Chic'', and BfcClellan, — [Protracti 
enthusiastic cheer . in which 'lie roice of the 
speaker was lost.] Government, in this coun- 
try, lias its form and embodiment in thai wril 
ten instrument colled the Constitution of the 
United States. That piece of "parchment," 
that piece of " sheepskin," .is it was sneering- 
ly called by the ■ 

evening, that Constitution of the United i 
is the written expression of the public wUL, the 
embodiment of th and in Mia* 

Constitution, which tons is, what Magna Char- 
ta is to England, what the h %beas corpus is u, 
England ; in tha i at is our form ol 

government., and thai government eiu^odiea 
tour distinct branches,— not alone the Presi- 
dent, of the United States, nor the Cabinet of 
the President of the United S'ates, (an organi- 
zation altogether unknown to the Constitution,) 
but the Senate of the United States, that has 
the treaty-making power, and that has the con- 
firming power over appointments, the House of 
Representatives of the United States, and last, 
not least, aye, more powerful than all, the Judi- 
ciary of the United States. [Cheers.] President 
Lincoln is no more the government, than you.or I 
or anybody else ; he is but a branch of the gov- 
ernment. [Ren ] He is but the 
Executive power. He is no more the govern- 
ment than the Sonate, or the House of Repre • 
sentatives, and Justice Taney, with bis associ- 
ate Judges, is as mnch a part of the govern- 
ment as the Prei ta flf. [Applause ] 

MAN ALLI MRY IDEA. 

These are constitutional f.ie.ts; this is the writ- 
ten law of the Uo i is the embo- 
died government ofthe United States, and the 
only government, to which I, or you, or any D«- 
mocrat, or any Whig, hue ever sworn alle- 
giance. [Great cheering. J Brides 
of government is twelve or fifteen hundred 
years old, a product of the feudal ag< 
darkest ages of Europe. Braoton, the I 
enunciated it in law Latin : 
et Minister Dei in Terra, omnis quidem sub so 

est, et ipse sub nulla, n nib Deo." 

The kingly idea of government, in one man, or 
tinder one authority, with certain Divine 
rights, irresponsible to man oa earth and 
scarcely responsible to God in Heaven, is the 
Tory idea of government ; the despotic, monar- 



chical idea., never before, till in (his crisis, this 
new era, inirodu ed and forctd upon the un- 
happy people of these United States of Ameri- 
ca. ['* Good, arid applause] The President 
himself is but the mere creature of the Consti- 
tution of the United States. He never was 
by the popular will, or by the popular 
voice of the people of the Uoitpd S'ates. — 
[" No, never," and great applause.] No never, 
never, never ! [A number of voices "Never."] 

3TR. LINCOLN NOT PHESIDrNT r.Y THE POPULAR 
VOICE. 

Of fl f or millions and two-thirds of a mil- 
lion of rotes cast at the last Presidential elec- 
[r. Lincoln was in the minority of nearly 
lion, among the people; [applause) and 
though in California and Oregon, underthe plu- 
rality system, he received their electoral votes, 
Jersey, glorious New Jersey, [cheers for 
rsey,] he did no 1 , receive the vote popuUr 
or the vote electoral. Thus, in these three 
northern tesofth Union, a majority ofthe 
people were against him, while from the Sus- 
quehanna to the Rio Grande, in fifteen other 
States, not a popular, nor an dec' oral vote was 
given bim. 

| MB LINCOLN ONLY PRESIDENT AS CREATURE OF 
THE CONSTITUTION. 

Nevertheless, under our constitutional sys- 
I tern in the, Electoral Colleges, of the 303 elec- 
toral votes bl en , though in a popular minority 
of nearly a million of votes, be did receive 
1 180 electoral vob more votes 

tban wei e i ecessazy to elect him, the President 
nited States, under the Constitution. I 
, then, the President does not represent, 
and neva hasrepi rented, the popular will of 
.the people'oi the Tinted States. (A voice— 
: "And never will.") He is the mere creature of 
the Constitution of the United States, and our 
obedience to him as Executive, our fidelity to 
i ive, is through, and under the 

Constitution alone. ("That is all," and cheers.) 
deelaimers tell me, that the 
Ins Cabinet 
or, ] show thun the popnla 
iem, that the President" 
nt, but as he was 
Id by the Constitution of the 
rod in defiance of the popular voice of 
•he U. S. (Applause, ) Tell me not, then, that 
I may not.and t hall not,discuss the measures of 
an administration, or, that this administration 
is the government, and that in criticising the ad- 
ministration I am guil'y of treason to the govern 
meut. Government is a thing eternal,and spring* 
from God as well as born of the instincts of man, 
but Mr. Lincoln is but a creature of the Constitu- 
tion for four years only, and the Cabinet are 



but creatures of Lincoln. And yet. the reverend 
Brooklyn expositor tells us, that the Preaident 
aod the Cabinet are the government of the U. 
S. (A voice— " They are pretty nearly played 
out.") I shall, therefore, as I have a right, 
discuss fretly all the measures of the adminis- 
tration. 

THE TARIFF NOT FOR REVENUE ALONE — CARPET- 
PETING— WOOD SCREWS. 

I shall speak ot the tariff, for example, 
cost what it may. I shall say that the existing 
tariff was not made for revenue, but in the main 
for the protection of a, few monopolizing, rich 
and wealthy corporator-', the most «)!' «hom are 
n New England. (Applause.) I wjll say — and 
I might enumerate many such instances — that in 
the simple article of the tapestry carpet manu- 
facture, in consequence of the loom for the 
manufacture of that species of carpeting being 
patented, the tariff law of the United States 
throws thirty or forty percent protection for 
every yard of tapestry carpet manufacture into 
the hands of two or three wealthy manufactur- 
ers of tapestry carpeting. ("That's so, and 
cheers.") (A voice, " Simmons on wood 
screws.") Yea, that is another of th< m . '■ ■ '■ 
iuatratiotiH. 

THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

So with the public- land?. Whan it wau 
necessary to raise the tariff to increa i thi 
protection io the^e corporators, not for re- 
venue, but wholly for the purpose of protection, 
the public lands were givei away by Co] 
under the pretence of a donation to the poor 
maD, while upon that very poor man's ■ 
k>vied a duty, which makes it cost him thirty 
to forty cents per pound more, while the price 
of his sugar hau been doubled, the price of his 
coffee largely it) creased, and taxation in every 
way and in every possible manner inflicted upon 
the consumers of products atid the laborer^ 
throughout all the United States. (Applause.) 
I will »ay, too, that the appropriation of mil- 
lions ot money for a tew wealthy eorporator^bf 
the Pacirij railroad by Congress in time of war, 
was a wasteful exercise of the power of appro- 
priating money when it was necessary during 
the war io inflict enormouj and gigantic taxes 
upon all classes of peopls. (Cheers.) 

THE CURRENCY— PAPEE MONEY LEUAL TENDER. 

I shall speak, also, of the currency of the Uni- 
ted States. The creal or^ of the Constitution, our 
fathers, intended that the people should nave 
hard money as the basis of their business, only 
haid money ; gold and silver were the people's 
money. Hence gold and silver were ingrafted 
upon the Constitution, and the power given to 
Congress was only the power to coin money, 
» ever to coin paper, as money, (" good" and ap- 



plause,) and to stamp upon metal. nevei'jOn pa- 
per, the value of money ; the States were for- 
bidden, therefore, lest they might override the 
Constitution, from ever making anything but 
gold and silver money a legal tender for the 
payment of debts between man and man. And 
yet, the administrative powers in Congress and 
in the White House have not only violated th6 
Consticution of the United States in the coin- 
ing of millions and millions of Treasury notes, 
but ha^e gone down to low water mark and 
have coined even postage stamps, not shin 
plasters alone, but sticking plasters also. (Great 
aughter.) Now, if human ingenuity had exert- 
ed itself to invent or devise the ways and 
means of destroying ihe value of property and 
of labor and of disturbing society, it need never 
have invent* <i bel for ways and means than have 
been thus invented by this Administration. The 
man who receives a dollar a day for his labor, 
when gold is twenty per cent premium, receives 
o) i eighty cents per day for that labor. (Tint's 
so, and applause.) The laborer, the painter, 
the carpenter, the iorger, the manufacturer, 
the foundryman, who 1ms his two dollars a day 
nominally tor labor, has only a dollar and sixty 
cents for that l.ibor, while upon his tea, his 
coffee, his sugar, his shirtings, hio sheetings, 
and his • lothing of all kinds, prices have been, 
if not dcubled, almost everywhere increased, 
to forty per ceut in cost. (That's so, and 
renewed tpplau ) Tell me not then, I am not 
to discuss such m the Administra- 

tion. Who shall forbid, what shall prevent h ? 
All the ingenuity »ud devices of Satan himself 
for destroying the value of labor and for cor - 
rupting everything in society, could not have 
suggested anything moie mischievous and 
damaging than this corruption and degradation 
of the currency. TUt* higher, nominally, things 
go, th< tnon I i laboi . practically suffers, 
tur ivhile the capitalist, in his better knowledge 
of value and of money, knows how to handle 
money and to exchange values, the last thing 
that ribes in the market, are the wages of the 
common day laborer. He, who has a salary ot a 
thousand dollars, hau tw ■■■. lit of 11 tak- 

en off. Ho whi ■•! . . owelve dollars a 
week, practically rei i dollars and forty 

cents lejs thau the contract was made for, 
when Uo first received these stipulated wages 
for his labor. (Applause ) These, however, 
are minor matters of importance, things to be 
but little considered when human Liberty, — if 
if dul human life, are all at stake. 

THE TWO PROCLAMATIONS -THE PROVOST SWV.- 
hHAL WAR ORDER. 

There have recently appeared from the ad- 
ministration of this government three docu- 
ments of the greatest importance, which it may 



be dangerous freely to discuss, but which it is 
not the less our right and duty fretly to dis- 
cuss. These are, the first Proclamation, the 
second Proclamation, and the last, but not the 
least, the War < >rder from the War Department' 
abolishing, to a considerable extent, the civil ju- 
risdiction of the courts, and establishing in lieu 
thereof, a system of Provost Marshals through- 
out the whole of the United States of America. 
The first Proclamation of the President has in 
it tbree elements, three points worthy of consi- 
deration. The first is emancipation, the second 
is a proposition for the compensation of slaves, 
and the third is the colonization of these 
slaves. 1 propose as briefly as possible to ex- 
amine these points in order. The first thing 
which strikes a man is, to aBk, where is the 
grant of power in the Constitution of the U. S. 
which gives the President, but the creature of 
the Constitution, authority to annul whole 
States of the Union, or the laws and institutions 
of whole States in that Union, and to override 
all laws for the protection or loyal men, even if 
in disloyal Sta'es. No man can rise and say, that 
there is, anywhere, in our written Constitution, 
any such authority tor the President of the U. 
S. to exercise any such power as he assumes or 
usurps in his Proclamation. The only authority 
claimed is, that he, as Commander-in-Chief of 
the army— of the army not in the field— fla- 
grante hello, but as theoretical Commander-in- 
Chief of the army, sitting in the White House 
at Washington, has the power to exercise any 
authority which appears to him beat, or which 
he deems right. Now, if this be law, there is i 
no security that he may not exercise the same j 
power, if he deems it best tor the people oi the 
United States, to annul the relation of (parent j 
and child, of ward mid guardian, of debtor and 
creditor, of mortgagor and mortgagee, aye, 
all the rights and obligations of society — for 
he has the bi ttder-in-Ghief 

roue all powers over the northern States 
of the Union. ("Hear, hear," and cheers.) 
Who created this creature of the Constitution, 
the offspring of a | opular minority, who vested 
and appointed bim with this arbi 
over thirty million tan beings? — (gteat 

cheering,)— a power, the like of which, 
erdaed in Englatd, without an act of Parlia- 
ment, won! I or* ate a revolut ion there in forty- 

hours, among all classes of people : a pow- 
er, which Napoleon never dared iu exercise upon 
his imperial throne, and which the French peo- 
ple would never submit to, if attempted over 
the people of France? (Cheers.) 

THE LAWS OP W.Ui. 

But there is no such military power under 
"■■• institnti u a of the United 

•re martial rights, lawe <•! war, 



but well known and well recognized, laws 
written of, in Grotius, in Vattel, in Puffendorf, 
n our own Wfieaton, and in our own Kent, and 
nowhere is there recorded as giviDg to any 
Dominal Commander of an army, any such au- 
thority ar the President attempts to exercise, 
not only over the people at large, but over this 
Constitution of the United States. I do not 
hesitate to say, cost what it may, the use of 
such power isau arbitrary, and despotic exer- 
cise of illegal and unconsti utional power. — 
[ !Y> mi ndous cheering.J I will not cite a hun- 
dred authorities that I could cite in La*in, in 
French and in Germao, under the civil law, as 
old as the days of Justinian, hut I wid come 
down to what has been deemed high Republi- 
can authority, that, of John Qainoy Adams. 
We had likts controversies with Great Britain in 
1783 and in 1816, upon the subject of plave 
emancipation, that we have now. Great Bri- 
tain, pending the revolution, emancipated and 
abducted many slaves from Long Island and 
elsewhere, and carried those slaves to Nova 
8 otia or to the West Indies, there to be re-en- 
. Laved, and in the war ot 1812, Great Britain ex- 
ercised alike power over this slave property of 
the; Uniled S'ates. John Quincy Adams, as a 
Minister to England, as Secretary of State of 
the United States, wrote to the British authori- 
ties that, — 

'• They (the British) had no right to make 
any Mich emancipation promises to the negro. 
inciple i«, that the emancipation of the 
en< my's slaves is not among the acts of legiti- 
mate war ; as relates to the owners it is a de- 
si ruction of private property, nowhere warrant- 
ed by the usages of war"' 

"No such right is acknowledged as a law of 
war by writers who admit any limitation. The 
right of putting to death all prisoners, in cold 
blood, without special cause, might as well be 
pretended to bo a law of war, or th^ right to use 
mi d weapons, or to as B at<si"ate." 

This is the language of John Quincy Adams, 
in his correspondence with the British govern- 
ment, upon the subject of slaves emancipated 
during the war of tne Revolution aud the war 
of 1812. Under this remonstrance, and through 
the treaty of Ghent, one million two huudreel 
thousand dollars were paid by the British gov- 
* rnment, to the southern slaveholders, for pro- 
perty thus abduced and emancipated during 
'he war of the Revolution and the war of 1812. 
[A-pplause.] Hence, as ihe Proclamation i» not 
rinht under the Constitution, it is no more 
ri^hf under the laws of war, nor is it righ', to 
the loyal men, in the disloyal States of this 
Unidn. 

MUTUAL DUTIES OF ALLEQIANOE AND IT.OTECTION. 

iment has obligations and duties as 
well as rights. It has no right to claim al- 
legianoe aud fidelity fretm a citizen when it can- 
not protect tuat citizen, aud unless pro ection 
is given, allegiance is not due. [Cheers] 
When the govt rumeut of the United Si ates fail- 
i .1 to exercise it« pow^r for the protection of 

diets of East Tennessee, of Virginia, of 

Cexa and or North Carolina, under the Uw of 

nations the people there were, %ro tem.,tor the 

absolved from allegiance to the 

doited States government, umil the govern- 

uldre oaiabli-h its power. [Applame.] 
There are two species of government under 
which men live, termed in law Latin, gov- 
ernments defacto and governments dejure, or 
in plaii er English, existing governments, 
governments in point, of fact, aud governments 



of right. Ours here in these Dorthern States 
is doc only a government de facto, but. a gov- 
ernment dejare. Theirs in the South, unre- 
cognized by ns or the world — a mere govern- 
ment of rebellion — is a government de facto, Dot 
a goveruraent de jure, till recognized bv the 
world and by us. Now, even loyal people living 
under that hard, iron, despotic government, de 
facto, of tbeSoutb, arebouud, obligated, forced 
by love of lifo and love of property to yield obe- 
dience to that government till they are emanci- 
pated from it by the people of these northern 
States. A.ud yet, this proclamation, with one 
fell blow, with oue fatal sweep, abolis 
rights of property which every loyalist has in 
Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, 
Texaf, or anywhere, South. The loyalist and 
the rebel are put uciou a par bv iIum proclama- 
tion. And the loyalist, if, for the sake of his wife, 
of his children, and of his property, though hia 
heart'elt allegiance may be given to this govern- 
ment, though his love and devoti in art allfoi 
it, he obe> s this tktvernment de facto, yet is 
put under the ban by this proclamation as 
much as if he bad beeu a rebel, ab-initio, from 
the very beginning, when the r'-beiliou first 
broke out. (Applause,) Heiiee, I repeat, the 
proclamation is unconstitutional ; the procla 
mation is against the laws of war ; (loud aijd 
protracted cheers ) the proclamation is against 
all well-written distinctions of jurists upon the 
subject of allegiance and loyalty due govern- 
ments, dejare and de facto. (Renewed cheers ) 
Excuse me, gentlemen, lor the heaviness, 'ho pro- 
lixity of this discussion. (" Go on, go oa.") I 
fear that in entering into it I am loo laborious- 
ly d'acustiiu^ abstract, principles ; but in theso 
times it becomes necessary to discuss these 
plain, constitutional, legal principles and to show 
that two. and two make four. 

FEDERAL COMPENSATION FOB STATE SLAVES. 

The next proposition of the proclamation 
is compensation to slaves. Here I plant my 
foot down on the steps of my fathers, in 
this, and other northern States, and tell 
the South to abolish slavery there as our 
fathers did, and pay for their siave-i when 
they abolish the institution, and not force 
taxation upon us to pay for 'he emancipation oi 
their slaves (Applause.) I will not tax the 
poor man of the .North nor the rich man of the 
North to pay for the emancipation of slaves in 
Texa*, North Carolina, Georgia, Teuueesee, or 
anywhere else. There is no such authority in 
Congress to appropriate money for anj such 
purpose whatever. All of theso northern States 
Uave abolished slavery by their own tree wid, 
and under their [own laws,have compensated the 
people or not compensated thtm as the people 
of the States willed. And yet, the President 
of the United Svatet, in the exercise of the pow- 
er of the Executive, promises to call upou Con- 
gress to tax the people of the North for the com- 
pensation of slives, loyal or dislo;> al. What ! are 
we, who are about to be more and more over- 
ridden by taxation, to be taxed even as the peo- 
ple of Eu^land and France are taxed on every- 
thing wa eatj drink, wear and move about in? 
Are we to tax the laborer of the North, earn- 
ing for his family, a dollar or two dollars a day, 
for the emancipation of slaves in dtstaut States 
of the Union, over whoso local interests, over 
whose municipal authorities, in whote debts or 
credits, or in whose systems of government we 
have do earthly r ght to exercise any power, 
and in which we have but little interest ? 
(Cheers.) 



eedehvl colonization of su 

The next, proposition of the President is a 
huge svstem of colonization for those slaves. 
Coming as be does from the State of Illinois, 
his own Republican State, which gave him the 
Republican vote, imbued wim the idea of the 
Western people,that they will not have negroes 
to live a; d dwell among them — he proposes to 
tax the Treasury of the United States millions 
upon millions to colonize, in Chiriqui or else- 
where, some three or four millions of uegroe9, at 
the exp heNorth. Why, never did a 

dn tnier idea enter the head, it seems to me, 
of auv wild Utopiau scheming philosopher. 
(Laughter and applause.) 

The abduction, the emancipation, the coloni- 
zation of four milhous of humau beings from 
the cotton and rice fields of the South, from the 
tropical districts of that region, whore only the 
negro can work, where the white man cannot 
possibly labor under that tropical >"un, the colo- 
nization of three or four millions of once happy 
human beings to some foreign country, on some 
wild prospect of emigration, and the taxation 
of twenty milhous of Noj ihero people to pay 

i > s negro < olonization,is utterly 

impossible, and never can take place. What- 
ever the President may say, or whatever ho may 
dream of, the Southern negro will remain hero 
iu the laud of his adoption and now the land of 
his birth, and the onlj q - I ft torus to 

settle », wh< ' ■ shall be left 

iiutramnielled, unnoticed and undisturbed by u*, 
as tli .v have been, from the foundation ot the 
gov, c imen , or whether we shall use the power 
of the army to subvert and destroy the author- 
ity of tlieir mas'ers and instal these slaves as 
masters of the Southern States of this Union, 
(" never, never,") and when thus installed, 
whether wo shall have i-lavo partnerships 
with them 



NO NEGJ HIPS. 

For one, I am readv to Bay that if the 
time ever arises when Georgia or Alabama, or 
\ irginia or Louisiana is governed by negroes, 
with a negro judiciary, negro senators in Con- 
gress, and negro representatives, it is quite 
tune tor the wnite people of the North to dis- 
solve partner ihip villi any such concern. (Loud 
cheers.) All these,however,are dreams of negro 
liberty, equalitv and fraternity ; and if the 
schemes ot the President are curried out, there 
must inevitably 10110*, what the Aohtionists 
now demand of nim, the arming of the slaves, 
their adoption into the arniv of the United 
States, and our recognition of them, not only as 
tellow soldiers, but as fellow citizens al- 
so. (Applause and laughter.) In Louis- 
iana, there are now thousand of slaves 
supported on government rations, and every 
ne,;io costs the U. S., forty cents a dav for bis ra- 
tion. Something must be done wnh these ne- 
groes. jThe Abolitionists propose to briDgthem 
into the army of the United States. This is no 
new proposition. Alikd proposition was made 
two years ago, id the State of New York — the be- 
ginDingof that idea, to give negro rnffrage to 
negro voters, and though this was a Repuolican 
State, going for Mr. Lincoln by fifty thousand 
majority, the Republicans themselves had good 
sense enough to vote down that proposition by 
an immeose majority, Butwbat mean these 
propositions? They are nothing new. Let us 
dee. 



. BE NEGBO lUii.- I i .< .' .■ I f IS BPAH 

[SB AHEBIOA. 

Look at Spanish America Spanish America 
was a t- 1 ' I i (I !>■ the lofty and proad Bid tlgos "t 
Spain ; New Engl tiled by tbe Puri- 

ut clasa 
of people, no, Paritans, not all Chevaliei 
-..in.! of them claim, not ah gentlemen, but 

-i thi in far diffei eat from gentli d 
Tbeee ;b ee els 

Pari 

Chivalry, say, in the centre aodSpani aAmer- 

■ South. God in w i madi a nobler 

if men than tin old .SpanishHtdalgoa. True 

to thai tim- to thi ir God aud 

they carried toeir old flag from tl a bai ksof the 

alqniver, far acro«« the Atlantic i 
from lie Bborea of Florida through S-nth 
d from thenoe > 
tthfornia, or across the Cordilleras. 
' . i ile la Plata ; and 
faithful to their God auu king, Hi y 
i this old Has; of Bpaia in glory from 
lant ic to tne Pacific ocean [A.] 
A i long as the pure white bloo ourm <l 

m tin r . wi re an uncom 

m .in' to] Pb lofty at ma 

laud, tin- pi*oad D »rs, the 

Aone, 
all tiniiHii i • ! .11 vain againsl this pure white 
of the Spanish people. i>ut when Spain 
ud intermar- 
rying with the 1 1 ili. in and with the n ■ ■■ when 
Spain adopted into her armies the b'ack blood 
of the ii. gro 

then, j,o longer, did the pure wb 
Spam rule in glowing grandeur from the moun- 
■ ok* of the A 1 1 • 1 • i, but tto ad th< 

Indian at last roee up, and drove 
out the loft] II •' ! ... io the h line 
wheuco he emigrated, bo that now, when I 
northern or a southern regii 

latto of Sudiu, 
od, one fierce 
look of ol a nor i hern or boti'horuiuan wo 
moliab a whole regiment ol 
Ludyet, th 

to arm as, io intn i into 

our anni 

consoi iption, trom oui i 
march . Hi<tsis ippi, i 

d< r, with this [a.. 

plaui- ' 



Th< i ro men, 

and inn. i- i.M 

K'hom ..' w ryou tigl I idi I hoever 

i.- youi f< How soldier, is j our fello ■ 

li'in, you in- at of snffraj 

right • domioU. You mu&t 

I I i.im t.. 

your equal m boo 

law. j scorn Abolition] ir hypocrisy 

in tin- North, for while ihoy preach the equality 

of 'In Will not Hit hld( 

bim, in 

cbnroh. '1 worship God scarcely at 

ib * fame alt; iurv him away iu some 

th9y hide him in aouiecWk gallery, and 

I lilui from i lie earth I 

to a better world, instead of honoring 

rave with some equalitv, 

away in a dark corner of a Potter' . Field. Tney 



will not many or intermarry with negroes. I 
cannot persuade my friends of the Tribune to 
make negroes associate editors with them ; I 
cannot induce them to employ negro reporters, 
compositor* er pressmen, aud yet, they preach 
nesro equality and fraternity out, of the Tribune 
domain. [" How are you, Greeley, and the white 
coat and hat V" followed by biases for Greeley.] 

nosr, no 2. 

Let uu look, now, at Proclamation No. 2. I 
i this topic with more apprehension 
than I have any of tbe others, for there is more 
in a- promulgation. [" Don't be afraid, 
go on."] This proclamation is a corollary of 
Proclamation No. 1. It substantially says to 
.in of tne North, if you discuss 
and agitate this subject of emancipation, if you 
make >*■ i the Administration upon ibis 

sabjec , you shall be incarcerated in Fort La 
Fayette. ["Go on, let them try it,."] The pro- 
clamation forbids all disloyal practices, and 
among other thingf, states.that all people who 
lilty of, dieli ball be aub- 

law. But who ia to judge of 
oilt of disloyal practices? The eonr's 
ot law— judges and juries? 0, no. ["Dick 

1 the city of 
New York, S head 

of the police. [Biases.] And, it I have an ene- 
l that social enemy approaches the Pro- 
I arshal aud whispers that I am guilty 
of dmloyal pracices, he having a< udied into 
rets of some 'atmly circle, the Provost 
Mar. .lntl, n Li boul proces -, without judge or jury, 
can i all to his aid two thousand policemen, ami 
can arrest and incarcerate me iu Fort La Fay- 
ette, and 1 am there beyond the hope of 
corpus and the protection of law. 
("No, n< -. ■ r, ") Qiere are two points in the 
Pre clan • vat ia the suapenaiou of the 

civil, and the establishment of martial law, and 
cond i the is cor- 

pus. You all know what tbe civil law is — 
courts, and the processes by 
which yon have been accustomed to see law ad- 
law you do not 
know. It ii i ur happy lot, since the 

• lament, never before 
now to kuow u h i in..) ti.il law was iu this coun- 
try, and we can not know whatitianow,but as we 
it in tbe history ofdespotiogo\ tin tnents 
over the A'laniic ocean. Martial law lathe law of 
of the drum bond court, of rhe 
I be, the absolute law,the law from which 
there ia no court of appeal, but, to the jurisdiction 
ol which there must be implicit obeuience ; and 
from which there ia no hope for, 
except a( the pleasure of the administrators of 
that martial Jaw. The next point in that Pro- 
ion of the Habeas cor- 

GATIOH ui' atAGNA CHABTA. 

Now, friends, there are certain Latin 
words which come down to uu from the hiatory 
of our lathers, almost madeEugliah by cona'ant 
it^c, which ciunot well bo translated, but which, 
■ • v. rtheless, arc toll of meaning AH Eugbah 
liberty, and all our liberties as doscendauta of 
Eugliohinen, come from what ia called Magna 
Charta. it was extorted bv the barona of Eng- 
land from their despotic King John, in the year 
1215, for themeelvoa and their aerfa, under the 
threat of tbe i-word. it he did not sign ilia' great 
chaner for English liberty, lion winch nave 
soinng, in the main, all the rights aud liberties 
of Englishmen. From thenoe cornea our right 



of trial by jury, and our security in the posses- 
sion of our property. " Nutlus liber homo ca- 
pietur vel impnsonetur,"- "NoFreeman shall be 
taken or imprisoned. "No | ball be 
dissti-ed of nia freehold, impri oned a '1 con- 
demned, but, by judgment of uia Peer 1,1 u 
law ot the land." That is the right' and 
the liberty which the Eoglis-h people have 
had eioce, Anno Domino, 1215. Nop.', for 1 1 
time here,and onlv with occasional exception i,in 
the history of English liberty, we a I 
this right of trial by jury;v ed, ar- 
rested and imprisoned without any adjudioal 

of a jury upon our Bins, or iniquities, on any 
allegations which may be made b gainst us, aud 
our property may be seized or diotnrbed 
out any adjudication whatsoever, (Sb 

THE NTTLLIFIC ATICN OF HABEAS C0BFD8. 

There followed, in the reign of the two 
Charleses of England, (despotic kings,) what 
is called the writ of habeas corpus, rite 
right which an English subject bad, when- 
ever he was taken prisoner, and incarcer- 
ated in a jail, to have a writ frotn a Judge 
of the Court of King's Bench, commanding 
the jailor to bring the body of tnal 
fore him, to have hie case adjudicated upon, ac- 
cording to tho laws of England. And ■ 
which bas been Eoglish liberty since the days 
of the dark ages, (12i5,) thai which tbedi 
Kings of England, the two CharK 
ed, one ot whom was executed for hie ' 

aud his government suppre d I ••• Cromwell— 

that which our fat hers ha 
reign, is now subverted, overthrown, d< s rojed, 
by a mere proclamation from the Pre ideiit oi 
the U. 8., annulling both the right of trial l y 
jury and the habeas corpus, by 
person has a right to know, before mi j 
why he has been incarcerated. The Pr 
claims that he has authority, Consti- 

tution, to issue this power of sum ' 
habeas corpus. Believe you that Washington, 
rebelling against the tyranny ot the <-'■ ■ 
power ot King George, that Madison, J. B 
Franklin, old John Adams, or any ol 
thers of the Revolution, ever created a Cot 
tut ion by wnich one mere man, havi 
same flesh and blood, that yon and [have,i 
without act, of Congret-s, to have authority over 
thirty millions of people ? — ths 
of you, by day or by night, from your - i 
children, and incarcerate you in For. La , 
or Fort Warren, beyondall hopeot redemp .on ? 
("Infamous.") Never did the framer 
Constitution give or grant such powers to the 
Executive ol the U. S. (" W r stand 

it.") If it wore given, there is no liberty any 
longer for the people of the U. S., for that Exe- 
cutive has but by the exercise ot arbitrary po v- 
er to involve this country in war with England or 
France, and in the suspension of t be habeas 
corpus, after creating an army of a million cf 
men, to ride, rough suod,over thirty millions of 
hitherto free white men. ("Never, never.'"*— 
Our own Judge Hall, in the western part of the 
State, but tne other day liberated a pereon, a 
reverend gentleman— who may, or may not, 
have been guilty of something, I know not 
wuat— on a haoea< corpus, and in doing so, de- 
clared that, as Congross had given the Presi- 
dent no such power, he had no such power. 
(Applause ) Notwuaatanding this decision of 
Judge HalU this person was taken, the moment 
he was liberated (a white man kidnapped) to 

isolated from the ptople, and secreflv and 
stealthily taken from Buffalo to Al ba n?; thencS 



to Washington, a State prisoner. (Shame.) 
And they tell mo that for tbin free speech, thin 
free ami fundamental discussion of all these 
things, I may be imprisoned and incarcerat- 
ed. ("Nj, yon won't.") But I do not at all feel 
certain 'wo thousand policemen may 

not take mo any boor of the day from the midst 
of my fellow-citizens, audiucarc<.rate me. (Nev- 
er," and protracted cheers.) 

(A man in the audience proponed three cheers 
for Judge Hall, which were pnthneias* ically giv- 
en.) 

WHAT IS TO BE DONE ?— GO TO THE BALLOT-BOX 

Now, fellow-citizens, I dare say I phall be 
ij Republicans, after these complaints 
against the administration of the government, 
" Whal are we to do?" If this country was not 
in the midst of a civil war, I would have no hes- 
itancy in saying, as Patrick Henry said, in the 
Revolution, " Resistance to tyrants is ebedi- 
Goci." (Enthusiastic and lot g continued 
cheering.) (Capt. Rynder* -" Three cheers for 
that, if it is the last cneers that freemen have to 
The cheers were given.) What are we to 
do? (An auditor — " Wnere are the tyrai 
"Put him out.") All I propo le to do is to appeal to 
the ballot-box. Tb i : - > itherto been a suffici- 
ent court i f appeal forall the people of the Unit- 
Li they will permit us to have it, arouse 
and inspire yoursel >n at the ballot 
box. (Applause.) I ballot box is your only, 
your lofty and sublime remedy. ("Will they 
letUBhavt the ballot box?") Go to the ballot 
box and make a trial there for the redemption 
oi people irom all impending slavery. For 
the present, | ill this arbi- 
>of power. ("We will -io it.") If 
[,oi nvoi your follow citizens be imprisoned, 
be French did inthemidn ,,\ .h,. i; vo 
i large proci > the red cap 
er. vt i\ 'n>o!na.i"« head, (great 
applau ■<•) march bo unarmed, a 
beoded knees, if nei imp] re I i< 
manderto liberate your fellow- citizen. ("No, 
Devej ■ America, ) Freemen should always, be- 
fore re Dg to anj uttii ;,, beg. 

There ar< ... obligations 

mntry like this, as long as the ballot box 
is open for 'be redress or wrongs. ("You 
I lit.") When you have, assembled before 
this Bastili , read to the epaulettes, in the lofty 
sonorous Latin oi th< dark ages, the 9fa<7- 
Ha of your F, bers, thunder 

the habeas corpus m the ears of your Mlow cit- 
and soldiers, and tl ■ ■" ■ 

the Constitution of the United States, 
which g tarantee8 to every man the right 
of i'i i a, tiial by 

for bis property aud person. 
I citizens, I did not come here 

only to complain against the administration of 
thego. ling, i>ut itlxo to lay be- 

fore yon, m . bis free speech tha I am makiog,my 
ideas upon the subjec. ot this war. I Jiave no 
sympathy with rebellion in any shape or form 
oever. The Constitution of the United 
Sralesonce wasenougb for our southern conn- 
I, the Congr I States 

afforded every remedy for ihe redrees of their 
grievances under that Constitution. Tney 
were terribly provoked and goaded, bu f . iheir 
duty was, with the Senate of the United Spates, 
theirs, with the House oi I intatives, al- 

most theirs, with the Judiciary, theirs ; their 
duty was, to do what I urge npou you, thin eve- 
ning, to petition and to go to the ballot box. 
The right of petition is the birth-right of every 



in. The Ballot Box in the remedy for 
... rv American. Arm*, artillery, the Cartoach 

.j not, elements of American progro-n "r 
civilization. [Cheers.] I have my own ideas 
on tlun war. I wi*h 1 could express them freely 






F'iRTIFV AND HOLD GREAT RAILROAD AND RIVER 
POSTS. 

I would R$ve the army ot the Uni ed States 
occupy tbe great points of the Mississippi river 



here. ["Spe A ou( ' 1 Mo, no, J shall no Bpeak and rhecardinal points on the railroads and I 



blood is being shed. Bni (here the speak r 
[dering) fcbSa I ml 
i i born incbe State of Maine On one side 
. t ; t - British province of Nova Sootia and on 
c' Lower C mada, with wide 
navigable rivers, opening the State to the 
navies of the world: and vet there ie such an 
unconquerable, invincible, Anglo-Saxon spirit, 
i leoilodepi ndi boe tberethat 
I do no 

her, could < var snojngate 1 b 
pie. Snbjog it ion ox i n ia not an 

American idea : it is not a theory to which tbe 
Anglo-Saxon blood in our veins', will ever sur 



B-oold have those points fortified, aud then I 

would leave tin rebellion thus snrroundea to 

Bting itself to death, io crush itself out by the 

violence of its own venom. (Applause.) This 

geographical war of overrunning apeoole, whose 

territory stretches from the Potomac to the Rio 

protec ed in manyparts by an infernal 

iii ides of ov-.rrunning with Northern 

not habituated to that climate, that vast 

rritoroy, is a theory tha/t, in heend, 

musl fail. Our great duty cer'ainly is, not to 

the Constitution of the Un&ed States is 

1 and the Union restored as it was, 

the Abolitionists would have it. Let no 

man, therefore, pervert what I say. I have no 



reader! 11 tbe oatb of subj u nation w-re fueed ' sympathy ei Me r with treason or secession. 1 
upon n I Maine, he Would Btrike at abhor Beceesionismand Abolitionism, booh 



th< administrator of that oath- m the rem-; 
Imt whoever held oul to him the rifles oi 
self government, according to the CoustHu- 
tion of the United States; he, with asittgl 

from New York, or alsewhere, oould bring 

!1 tbe |u ople or' Maine to their obedience. 
I do not propose,if anj may draw such an 
. ic-e.tiir we shall em r Burrender our Con 
tiou and government to of the south- 

ern States. But I propose to carry on the war 
upon a different principle with the Bword in 
the right hand, nnd the Constitute m in the lefi : 
(great applause,) and under that panoply 
and protection, not a million of soldiers, 
1 thousand will crush out 
anil exterminate all i ebelhon. It 

- ary for the subjugation of that 
cradle of rebellion, where ibis nnliolv war 

began, where the proud flag of our 
country was first struck down cannon, 

it volunteers be called, to re hi Let that flag there, 
I tlonk 1 maj eay, two millions or' volun eers 
would go from tl.t Northern States. (Cheers.) 

. ■" l'l'TIES OF Tins 



(Great, applause.) I have no more respect for 
Wendell Phillips than I have for Jeff. Davis. 
Jeff. Davjs is but a rebel not two years old, aud 
Veii'N 11 Phillips i j a rebel, by Iijs own confes- 
ion, tweuty years old and more. (Laughter and 

BOTH NORTH AND 



LD TETE CONSTITUTION, 
SOUTH. 

Fellow-citizens, I have detained you too long, 
l" No, no, go ou,"J but I 'el it my duty to dis- 
•'■ cardinal, primary, fundamental prin- 
cioles of this government, and unless the> are 
maintained and vindica ed, we shall become 
n all other Republics have been, the 
victims of tyranny and despotism Turn over 
the Dages ol history, full of the tombs and sep- 
nlchres of Ri publica that have fallen. With 
'he exception of the little Republic of San Mari- 
no,on a peak ol the Appenines, we are the only 
Repubhc on tbe face of this broad earth. We 
ing two great experiments — first, if the 
pronniiciatnento of a people, dissatisfied with 
i he i onatitutiohal result of an election can sub- 
vert the govern re ondly, if tjrante in 
Mytheorvoitb. e heart and in spirit, can fasten upon us, by mere 
powers which th ation gives us. And paper Pi a tyranny which will put 
rorwbatwa a mainly formed ? ()l "' Repubhc in ihe same category of the 
What were ita puj a the main, exterior tomba and sepulchres of all other Republics 
purposes,— pnrponef-, out of, and beyond the do- tllrtf hive gone before it. ["Never, never."] 
matnol ih< I' was common ' '• ■' precious bo in, a birthright be- 

rnment ol yond all mice and calculation. Demagogues, 
1 reol the pet I1 ' 1 monarchists, the earth over, in 



pie of »he Chesapeake Baj ti trade 

with the n reol the 

peoi Ie ol Rhode I ea port 

I.! self in'- i 

icution 

■mm nni. ,i 

1 cans, reoo-sess Mobile, take 

mquer or buI jugate Chai l< ston at 



Euro],!: as well as here, are using all their cuu- 
nidg to subvert free institutions and tbe great 
priucii ui liberty. If, in our hostility 

"i rebellion, we forget our own ngh<s and our 
own libi rties, we are untrue to the sacred trust 
wbicb our fathers handed down to us, ia the 
Constitution andiu the Declaration ot Indepen- 
dence. Let me end, then, by repeating, now 
more important than over to be impressed upon 
the northern mind, tbe sentiment of a great 



.eminent hold onto northern statesman, in trying times befcre, 
all tbe Southern ports for the colli ction oi reve- " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one ana 
To have unity in the Custom Souse, a) inseperable." 



and unity for Foreign affair , abroad, were 
the main pur] 
formed. 



Mr. Brooks resumed his seat, amid enthusias- 
tic cheers. 



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